Politics and policy of building trust on official statistics: The U.K. experience

In spite of the methodological devices that assure the precision of statistics, citizens are the final adjudicators of the trust, independence, and quality of official statistics (as unemployment figures, for example.) Being aware of citizens' increasing mistrust of official statistics, the U.K. Office of the Treasury embarked in 2006 in an open consultation process, presenting its legislative proposal for official statistics reform and soliciting all interested parties to submit their reactions. The consultation process resulted in 78 responses from individuals, current and former government officials, professional organizations, banks, and corporations. This consultation process sheds light on issues that any government that would like to improve the citizens' trust on official statistics should consider, such as: (1) a truly independent governance of statistics; (2) the operational independence from government; (3) government interference and spin; (4) ensuring quality of data at the national and local levels; and (5) the particular needs of health related organizations. In the years to come it is difficult to see a more pressing task for statisticians than that of building citizens' trust on official statistics.